Scuttlebutt Europe #3153 - 21 August

Brought to you by Seahorse magazine, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinions, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors -- with a European emphasis. Contributions welcome, send to

A Fifth World Record In Sevenstar Swish, skippered by Canadian Roderick Knowles, crossed the finish line of the 2014 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race off the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes at 04.06.49 BST on Wednesday 20th August 2014 with an elapsed time of 8 days, 19 hours, 06 minutes and 49 seconds. Subject to ratification by the World Speed Sailing Record Council, this breaks the previous World Record for Monohulls 40 feet and less, set by Concise 2 in 2010, by over 18 hours.

This will be the fifth World Record broken during the 2014 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club.

At 0900 BST on Day 10 JV53 Bank von Bremen, skippered by Carol Smolawa, is just 18 miles from the finish and is expected to be the 12th yacht to finish the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race and claim third place in IRC Zero. In IRC One Hanse 53, Saga, skippered by Peter Hopps, passed the Fastnet Rock in the early hours of Wednesday morning 390 miles from the finish.

In IRC Two there is a tremendous battle between J/122, Relentless on Jellyfish, skippered by James George, and J/111, British Soldier, skippered by Phil Caswell. Relentless on Jellyfish is sixteen miles behind the Army Sailing Association's British Soldier but leads on handicap by just 50 minutes.

The Irish Two-Handed team, Liam Coyne and Brian Flahive racing First 36.7, Lula Belle, spoke with the RORC Media Team as they approached the Irish Coast on Tuesday evening. "We are just off County Mayo, were I was born," said Liam Coyne. "All is well on board but we only have the A5 kite left, the other two are trashed and the mainsheet track has come away from the deck but it is nothing a bit of Irish engineering couldn't solve, I just hope it holds out. We are determined to finish this race but being so close to home makes us really want to get on with it."

The British Two-Handed team, Ian Hoddle and Conrad Manning racing Figaro II, Rare, have increased their lead over the German Figaro team, Dessert D'Alcyone, skippered by Werner Landwehr with crew Heiner Eilers. Rare is now 45 miles ahead, a gain of 25 miles over the last 24 hours.

5O5 Worlds Mike Holt and Rob Woelfel have moved to the top of the leaderboard of the SAP 505 World Championship after winning a breezy race in Kiel, Germany, today. They sit just two points ahead of their training partners, the British duo of Andy Smith and Tim Needham who pushed the Americans all the way around the windy and wavy race course.

After two days of racing earlier in the week to gale-force winds, the championship has now been compressed to a four-day regatta, and with four races down and just three to go, the top of the leaderboard is starting to take shape.

The leaders going into today's racing were Morten Bogacki and Lars Dehne. It looked set to be another very solid outing for the German team until they capsized during one of their final tacks to the finish. This dropped them out of the top 10 to 33rd place, a score they will be hoping to discard as soon as more races come into play. Their other scores are 1,2,5, so they remain a strong bet for the world title.

Two races are scheduled for Thursday, with the first race due to start at 12pm local time, with a live broadcast of all the action on sap505worlds.com.

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Rod Davis On Why He Left Team New Zealand Davis says he was first approached to work with Artemis in March 2014. 'I had some good talks with Team New Zealand after the last Cup in December. We knew we were going to part ways at that point. The split has been very amicable. I got a note of congratulations from Shoebs (ETNZ's Kevin Shoebridge) this morning. We're all good mates, but it is time for a change.'

'Money didn't have anything to do with it. It is good for me to have new challenges. It is good for Team New Zealand to have a new voice, telling them a new way of looking at it. Ten years is a long time.'

This is not a new relationship for Davis. He worked with Artemis Racing previously on the RC44 circuit when Team New Zealand skipper, Dean Barker, used to helm for the Swedish team - before Artemis became involved in the America's Cup.

'I did a lot of coaching for them, so I know Torbjorn (Tornqvist) from that time. Iain Percy I know from the Olympics and the Star class (Davis is an Olympic Silver medalist in the Star class). I haven't coached him or any of the sailors previously but know of them because of all the Olympic involvement over the years.' -- Richard Gladell, Sail-World.com

Barker Returns To Helm On Extreme 40 Circuit The Emirates Team New Zealand sailing team is at Cardiff, Wales, this week for the fifth roound of the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series.

Skipper Dean Barker returns to the Extreme 40 crew, his first time at the helm since he competed in the second round held at Oman in March.

Halfway through the season and the team is lying third overall on 32 points. Alinghi is leading on 38 points, with The Wave, Muscat, second on 35.

Sailing with Barker are Ray Davies, Jeremy Lomas, James Dagg and Edwin Delaat. Peter Burling, who took the helm for the third and fourth rounds with Olympic 49er partner Blair Tuke trimming, and the team's America's Cup sing trimmer Glenn Ashby are not sailing at Cardiff.

Practice day at Cardiff is on Thursday, with racing from Friday to Monday. Twelve teams are competing.

EUROSAF Youth Sailing, European Championship Gdynia, Poland: Despite the breezy start and delayed launching of the boats, the EUROSAF Youth Sailing, European Championship again completed an almost full programme of races today, with some interesting developments is the overall placings.

Strong winds caused a delay to the start of Day 2 of the EUROSAF Youth Sailing, European Championship in Gdynia this morning, with guests reportedly as high as 30 knots. Conditions lessened sufficiently that racing got underway by the middle of the day, in wind speeds of some 16 to 17 knots with gusts in the region of 22 knots. This made for some exciting racing. As the day progressed, so the winds lessened, with shifts close to the shore, but otherwise the direction was fairly steady.

The championship continues tomorrow with another full schedule of races.

Windy Start to 2014 Snipe European Championship Kamien Pomoroski, Poland: A windy start to the 2014 Snipe Europeans with only one race held due to puffs exceeding the class limit of 25 knots. The single race was not without excitement with those sailors ready for the breeze on the course early.

Out of the gate was Alexandre Tinoco and Bernardo Low Beer (BRA) who led from start to finish. LowBeer reflected on their strategy- "we had a lot of speed and we started in the middle to be conservative." Tinoco added, laughing when he disclosed, "we had to do a tack instead of a gybe on the reach it was so windy." Yet despite losing some boat lengths, they remained in front to win the race.

Portuguese sailors Tiago Morais and Tomas Pires de Lima were pleased with their second place finish in the windy conditions sailing strong on the beats. Third across the line were Enrico Solerio and Sergio Simonetti (ITA).

Tomorrow's forecast is for less wind, a welcome for a few sailors having to bend masts back after capsizing in the shallow bay today.

Racing continues Thursday and runs through Saturday with the prizegiving on August 23rd. -- Jerelyn Biehl

Dart European Championship Swansea, UK: Some of the world's top sailors have descended on Mumbles to take part in the Dart18 European and National championships. With around a 100 boats expected it will be one of the biggest spectacles Swansea Bay has seen.

The Dart 18 European Championships 2014 incorporates the UK Dart 18 National Championships.

Waller-Harris Two-Handed Triangle Race The Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club's 19th Waller-Harris Two-handed Triangle Race, a major highlight in the Jersey's racing programme takes place from 6th to 8th September.

Boats carry a skipper and just one crew member. Following a briefing in the RCIYC the night before, boats set off on the first leg, from Jersey to Granville at 10.30 a.m. on Saturday 6th September. Crews dine in Granville in the evening then set sail for St Cast-le-Guildo bright and early on the Sunday morning. Crews assemble for dinner in St Cast, following the race, and leave on the Monday morning on the leg back to Jersey. In all, boats will have sailed about 120 miles in the three days.

There are prizes for each leg of the Triangle with the overall winners being awarded the Waller-Harris Skipper's and Crew's trophies. Last year, Dan Le Marquand and Lloyd Evans sailing the J35, Jabot, won class one whilst Vince Smith and Bruce Henstridge sailing the Oceanis 37, Sula Bassana, won class two.

The event is open to all-comers with the Notice of Race and entry form available in the yacht clubs and on www.rciycjersey.com. The closing date for entries is Tuesday 2nd September.

Industry News The future of Itchenor-based Southerly Yachts is once again looking bleak. The shoal draught boat builders who once boasted stars such as Ed Dubois, Rob Humphreys and Stephen Jones among their commissioned designers looks as though it could be heading for liquidation.

Letters have been mailed to creditors calling for a meeting to be held at Gatwick on 22 August.

One angry industry chief who is trying to call in debts told YM: 'They appear to be just a shell with no assets. It's grim news.'

Around 50 jobs are at stake and it is believed FRP Advisory, a company which helps potential businessmen purchase failing businesses, is acting as a consultancy to Southerly Yachts. But FRP also refused to comment.

Last year Southerly went into administration and the business assets were sold to a new owners. Many staff were laid off then re-hired as skilled labour. -- Dick Durham in Yachting Monthly

Now in its 7th year, the World Yacht Racing Forum will be centered around the theme "Growing the Business Of Yacht Racing." Subjects debated will include yacht racing in emerging markets, the role of ISAF, media, sponsors and athletes, sailing classes management and much more.

This year's event will once again include a world class speaker line-up. It will address the major challenges in the yacht racing world and welcome the key players from yacht racing events, teams, sponsors, agencies and sailors.

The World Yacht Racing Forum 2014 will take place ahead of the start of the Barcelona World Race, with the support of FNOB (Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona). It will therefore be a perfect opportunity to visit the boats involved in this race, and to meet its sailors.

Once again the event will be co-located with the Yacht Racing Design and Technology Symposium which will take place concurrently with the WYRF on December 10th.

Investindustrial portfolio company Polynt Group has agreed to acquire CCP Composites, a producer of unsaturated polyester resins, from French oil and gas company Total.

The acquisition will see the group expand its product range for use in the industrial and manufacturing sectors and provide it with its first production base in France.

Headquartered in Courbevoie, near Paris, CCP is a producer of unsaturated polyester resins for use in a variety of products including boat hulls, refrigeration trucks, swimming pools and showers. It employs 800 people across nine countries and generated a turnover of $560m in 2013.

Featured Brokerage 2012 High Performance Sport Cat "NINJA". 200,000. Located in Palma de Mallorca.

NINJA is designed by Brett Bakewell-White for coastal offshore racing and she is based on the SL33, designed by Morelli & Melvin. She is a fully category 3 compliant racing catamaran with navigation lights, 4 bunks, a small galley, life rafts etc.

In short NINJA is one of the fastest boats on the water considering she is only 33 feet long. She is quiet a "weapon" especially in light wind. She only needs 8 kts of wind to be fully powered up and reach speed of more than 15kts of boat speed.

Her success on the race course in NZ is talking clearly: a winning boat!